Mac|Life iPhone Software 2.0 RSS Feed

Apple to Update iPhone, touch Firmware to 2.1

Zack Stern — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:15:43 -0500

Apple will release its 2.1 firmware for the iPhone Friday and iPod touch today. Steve Jobs touted the update today, saying it fixes many bugs, allows for faster backups, drops fewer calls, and more. For those of us with iPhone issues--we've had them all--he had us at "hello."

The update will be free for iPhone owners and ships with the new iPod touch. It's also a free upgrade for iPod touch owners who are using the 2.0 update, but it will cost $9.95 to update an older version.

Wired Reveals 3G Network Weakness

Roberto Baldwin — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:45:59 -0500

Wired.com surveyed iPhone 3G users the world over, in an attempt to get to the bottom of the connectivity issues plaguing the iPhone 3G.

What they found was that a majority of connectivity issues are the result of less-than-stellar 3G connectivity. AT&T tied for third in download speeds behind Rogers of Canada, and T-Mobile in Europe.

In areas with dense 3G coverage, but a high concentration of iPhones, like San Francisco, the sheer number of connections seems to be straining the network. A good example of this phenomenon is music festivals. Last weekends Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco created a situation where the sheer amount of mobile devices in one area taxed every carriers towers. The overloaded towers decimated connections and festival goers devices become nearly useless.

This doesn't let Apple completely off the hook. Apple has acknowledged issues with 3G reception and has attempted to fix the situation with software updates with mixed success.

Got a story about your 3G coverage with the iPhone you want to share? Drop it in the comments below.

Firmware 2.1 Breaks Open Clip's Copy & Paste Functionality, Spirit

Florence Ion — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:40:38 -0500

iPhone fans everywhere are still clamoring over their copy and paste void. Who can blame them? Surely, one would assume that a smartphone would come equipped with something as useful as copy and paste. Apple recently announced that the function is in development for a future iPhone and iPhone 3G firmware update, but it is probably still considered low priority.

Thankfully, Apple enabled outsiders and underdogs to contribute to the greatness that is the iPhone with third party apps. Why not develop the copy/paste function before Apple? Zac White did just that with Open Clip, an open source initiative that endeavored to bring the highly coveted feature to iPhones everywhere. However, Open Clip wasn't exactly an application. Instead, the function will be available only for use with compatible applications (none of which exist just yet).

Open Clip was intended as a quick fix solution until Apple released the copy/paste feature officially. But unfortunately, the forthcoming 2.1 firmware update breaks the application, making it unable to copy and paste between different applications (though it can still function within one specific app). White insists that the recent glitch is not a ploy on Apple’s part. "The goal [was] to bring the usefulness of copy/paste to light. Everyone thinks it would be useful on this device,” he says on his website. “But sometimes being able to actually use it can really make it obvious.” Regardless, we appreciate his attempt.

iPhone Update 2.0.2 First Impressions

Roberto Baldwin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:33:47 -0500

The Mac|Life staff has had 24-hours to try out the latest iPhone software update and this is what we have to say about it.

Susie:

It's the greatest iPhone firmware update since 2.0.1! (Heh.)

248.7MB, that's a biggish-seeming update for the absolute lack of details Apple gave about it.

I haven't noticed any real-world difference in my limited time with it. I think I read syncing is supposed to go faster. But it's not like I'm sitting here with a stopwatch clocking the iPhone's sync time, you know?

Ray:

The keyboard is snappier, and I have more bars of signal than I used to. But I don't know if that means the reception is actually better, or if they just re-calibrated what counts as x number of bars. Also, my GPS is actually working now, but I nuked my phone and rebuilt everything at the same time I updated, so that might have fixed it without the update. Either way, yay!

iTunes still tells me I have an app update, but clicking the link tells me everything is up to date.

Robbie:

It solved a problem I had while driving around with my iPhone. After calls, the iPod app wouldn't return to its rocking ways. I kept having to put my life in danger reaching over to the passenger seat to restart my tunes.

Thanks to 2.0.2, I'm no longer putting other drivers and pedestrians in danger.

Leslie:

Update--what update?

Yeah, I didn't notice a difference.

What changes have you noticed in the latest software update? Drop your experience in the comments below.

iPhone 2.0.2 Update Available

Roberto Baldwin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:52:17 -0500

Apple has released the latest iPhone Software Update. The latest bug fix/security enhancement brings us up to 2.0.2.

We're installing the update right now. We'll keep you posted if it causes chaos, makes us crawl under our desks, and weep uncontrollably until someone promises cake if we come out.

Drop your updating experience in the comments below.

Steve Emails iPhone Owner - Promises to Fix Connectivity Issues

Lisa Weddle — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:17:54 -0500

MacRumors is reporting that one of its readers has received a response from Steve Jobs (or someone acting on his behalf) to an email that was sent complaining about the current iPhone connectivity issues plaguing some users.

According to the email, Steve assured the reader that the issue, which affects 2% of the iPhones shipped, will be fixed with a software update soon to be released. Here is the email response:

We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon.

Steve

MacRumors notes that Steve Jobs has been known to send out brief responses to select emails sent to him. If his figure of 2% is accurate, the problem could be affecting over 60,000 users based on the estimate that three million iPhone 3Gs have been sold.

This email seems to substantiate last week’s report that Apple was working on a software update to resolve the issue. That report put the release of that software update as no later than the end of September.

Push Notification Pulled from Latest iPhone Software Beta

Roberto Baldwin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:21:02 -0500

Apple's promised push notification service for third-party developers has been pulled from the latest iPhone 2.1 beta.

Push notification service would give third party developers the ability to alert users that they have received, for example, an instant message without the app running in the foreground.

Apple doesn't allow third-party applications to run in the background of iPhone Software 2.0. The promise of push notification in September is seen as a way around the inability of third-party apps to run in the background, yet still allow the receipt of alerts similar to how Mail alerts users of new messages.

Apple states that the feature was pulled from the beta for "future development" inside the company.

Via AppleInsider

Developers Get iPhone 2.1, Including Push Notification Service

Susie Ochs — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:10:01 -0500

Apple's Push Notification Service is getting closer to a reality; the first implementation of it was included in a beta release of iPhone Software 2.1, which was seeded to iPhone developers yesterday. Once the service is live, app developers will be able to send various notifications to their users even if the app in question isn't running on that user's phone.

When Scott Forstall explained the iPhone 2.0 software, first to the media last March and later to developers at June's Worldwide Develolpers Conference, he made reference to Apple's Push Notification Service. PNS will allow developers to send notifications to users' iPhones even though their apps weren't running at the time. It's designed to be a workaround for the fact that Apple doesn't allow iPhone apps to run in the background.

For example, if you're not using the AIM app, you won't see any new instant messages until you open that app. But once Push Notification Service is rolled out, AIM's can send a notification of your new messages to Apple's "cloud," and then Apple will push it down to your phone. Forstall mentioned pop-up text-based notifications (like those used currently by the Calendar app), "badge" notifications (like the red circle icon on the that shows you how many unread Mail messages you have), and sounds.

Apple intentionally made sure that iPhone and iPod touch applications can't run as background processes, so users know when they quit an app, it really quit. Running background processes also saps battery life and slows down processor performance. The PNS uses Apple's always-on IP connection to the iPhone, which it "loans" to developers to let them accomplish roughly the same objectives. The final service is expected to roll out sometime in September.